Thank God for working air conditioning on hot days like today. Yesterday morning, I finally got the company shop to fix it, and I was just barely able to meet my 1:00 pm EDT appointment deadline here in Louisville today. Even if A/C isn't enough to chill you, though, the following two stories are extremely chilling, and I bet you'll have the shivers by the time you finish reading them.

I will start with an update to the Zach Stark story I first mentioned on June 19. The Ex-Gay Watch blog's July 13 entry mentions that Joe Stark publicly identified himself as Zach's father (and, as I'll point out shortly, a total liar and hypocrite) in a recent interview with Pat Robert-satan's CBN television network. Incredibly, Joe Stark actually had the gall to defend (?) the decision he made to subject his son to far worse forms of psychological torture than those ordered by King George the 43rd for use at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. (Forcing another human being, particularly your own flesh and blood, to deny his very soul just because of your ignorance, blows urinating on a Koran right out of the water.)

(Aside, regarding the Ex-Gay Watch blog post: I'm a wee bit miffed that a section of this site that has been online for OVER SIX YEARS — well before Blogger, LiveJournal, Xanga, etc. were even gleams in some 'Net geek's eye — was referred to as an "obscure blog," but then again, I've been called far worse than that before. Oh well, I'll survive. )

(Second aside, regarding my full-name identification of Zach a month before his father went to Pat Robert-satan: I believed that using his full name accomplished two very important ends, regardless of the fact that most everybody else in the blogosphere wouldn't touch it. Firstly, calling him nothing more than "Zach" really doesn't get any kind of public attention to the abuses being perpetrated against him; your average John Q. Public is more likely to think, "oh look, those ho-mo-sexuals are protesting again; what are they lisping about this time?'. When you put a name and/or a face on people who are victimized for their natural attraction to the same sex, as Zach has been, it creates more consciousness that shit like this is being done to a real person (i.e., that we're not just "making it up" to "get attention"). By hiding Zach's last name, I honestly believe the gay blogosphere was just playing right into the "homosexuality doesn't really exist — it's a chosen behavior" hands of Robert-satan and Fool-well. Secondly, I felt that identifying the parents and exposing their negative IQs and anti-Christian behavior was something they richly deserved.)

In the interview, Joe Stark said, "Zach has got a mind of his own, and that's a God-given gift. And Zach will have to make those choices when he is an adult as to what exactly he is going to do with his life. But until he turns 18 and he's an adult in the state of Tennessee, I'm responsible for him. And I'm going to see to it that he has all options available to him."

Shut the fuck up, Mr. Stark, before God strikes you immediately dead for violating the Commandment, "Thou shalt not lie." You're going to "see to it that [Zach] has all options available to him"? You are so full of shit it's bubbling out through your ears. I find it hard to believe that a person like you, who (obviously falsely) calls himself "Christian," would so blithely ignore one of the Ten Commandments to enforce ONE option — your chosen option — upon Zach. Your son's God-given sexual orientation is not subject to your misguided interpretation of "all options" — the only entity that has any "options" here is God, and if you're such a "devout 'Christian'" like you claim, how dare you question God's plan for your son?

Finally, let's get one other thing straight, no pun intended: as to your quote, " … homosexuality is not in God's plan — it's wrong," … um, no. Homosexuality is not in YOUR plan. The very fact that it exists at all proves beyond a doubt that it is in God's plan. I don't mean to diminish the grief I'm sure you're feeling over Zach's being gay — sure, you probably hoped for grandkids like anybody else — but this grief does not excuse your lies or your equating of your own plan with God's.

As if psychological torture in the name of "Christianity" isn't bad enough, some parents actually think it's a good idea to murder their "gay" children — even when the child is FUCKING THREE YEARS OLD and doesn't have any clue about sex or sexuality, beyond possibly the Kindergarten Cop-esque "boys have a penis and girls have a vagina." Ronnie Paris Jr., the 21-year-old father of the aforementioned toddler (that's Ronnie's first problem: he was banging some girl at 17!), is now accused of first-degree murder in his son's death, and could be executed by the state of Florida if he is convicted. Apparently Paris believed that his three-year-old was gay, and would force the child to fight him to "toughen him up"; he would slap the child upside the head until he cried or wet himself, and on one occasion threw him into a wall because he was vomiting.

Just how in the fuck does one even begin to think that one's three-year-old child is gay or lesbian? For Christ's sake, the kid is still a decade away from puberty — give me a break. Gender-atypical behavior in young children means absolutely nothing in terms of future sexual orientation; it is part of the very nature of young children to explore and experiment with anything and everything, regardless of the strictures of adult society. (That's why you have to put those little plastic covers over your electrical outlets, tie back the excess cord on your window blinds, and block access to upper or lower floors of your home — like it or not, your kid will experiment, and all you can really do as a parent is prevent injury.) The "problem" comes in when parents over-react out of fear and take drastic measures to force their children into only gender-"acceptable" behaviors. Combine Mr. Paris' undue and unwarranted fear of his son's alleged gender-atypical behavior with the anti-Christian influence of Fool-wellians and Robert-satanists, and it should be quite easy to see how something like this happened.

(A couple personal stories will prove my point. I have a cousin who is 17 and about as straight as one can be; when he was perhaps 8 or 9, as I recall, he was extremely small for his age and rather un-athletic. I once wondered if he might eventually turn out gay, just based on that, but obviously, given what I know now, his early childhood didn't mean a thing. When I was growing up, there was a girl at the end of the block who was a few years younger than me; to say that she was a "tomboy" as a child would be a colossal understatement. She was always getting into fights (and the trouble with principals, parents, etc. that ensued), and in spite of behavioral issues (probably ADHD) that kept her mostly off organized youth sports teams, she was extremely athletic and always seemed to join boys in playground contests. Guess what? She ain't no dyke; last I heard, perhaps seven years ago, she was boffing boys left and right.)

I get to head up to Indianapolis to get my next load, and on Sunday evening, I will be delivering that in middle Tennessee. Perhaps a short "bombing run" over to Memphis would be in order.